1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates generally to dental hygiene techniques and apparatus, and more specifically to an improved toothbrush mechanism to efficiently accommodate cleaning sites in the mouth.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Toothbrushes have been designed to clean teeth by removing plaque and food debris with brush bristles of various dimensions, firmness, materials, and retention methods. Originally, and dating back several centuries, the toothbrush had a design of brush bristles mounted on a handle which carried the bristles into the mouth. The fixed nature of the brush handle required that the user manipulate the brush into exact position before activating the brushing motion. Variations of brush design from uneven bristle heights to "serrated" designed bristle patterns attempted to enable bristles to extend between the teeth for greater cleansibility. However, the brush handle and head were always rigidly fixed in one position.
Some toothbrush designs have provided rotational brush heads rotating on an axis parallel to the axis described by the brush head bristles and perpendicular to the targeted tooth surfaces. However, they have no rotation to accommodate the curvature of the dental arch.
Other toothbrush designs attempted to create better hygiene access through changing the angulation between the brush head and the brush handle. These designs had a number of proposed angulations between the head and handle, but the head and handle were fixed in place relative to each other regardless of the angulation.
The design of toothbrushes with an angled head had either single or double (binangled) bends in the connector. The head was angled toward the targeted teeth. The intention of the bend was to allow the brush to function around the corners of teeth and on the inside (tongue side) surfaces of teeth that either could not be reached by conventional straight brushes or would be highly demanding of the operator to adjust the straight brush to reach these surfaces. Despite this improvement over straight designs, the rigid fixture of the head to the handle could not adapt to various angles of access and presented an abnormal relationship of brush head to teeth when a straight brush design might serve best.
Some of these angled designs also suffered from design imbalance. A balanced toothbrush is designed so that the brush head meets a line that extends from the longitudinal axis of the handle. The farther the brush head is from this axis line, the more out of balance the brush is. The greater the brush imbalance, the greater amount of force must be applied to the handle to activate the bristles on the brush head.
One variation included a spring-like member on the handle designed to absorb excess forces applied to the brush to prevent tooth abrasion, but it yielded control while relieving stress. In addition, there was little or no true rotation of the brush head itself to offer improves access for improved hygiene.